Black and Red

by banjo2E

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life, Sad, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 1153

The black-and-red alicorn is an ancient and vilified image. Ebony Redwood knows this well.

The image of the black-coated, red-maned alicorn is an old and powerful one, synonymous with treachery, narcissism, and being kind of a ponce overall.

On Nightmare Night it is said that, during Discord's reign, Equestria was nearly saved by such an alicorn, wielding amazing powers, only for said alicorn to demonstrate a really big superiority complex and basically lord it over everypony else. After a year or so of constant petty annoyances, this alicorn was overthrown (to great applause) by a group of commoners led by what turned out to be Discord wearing a skirt. (This sort of thing was actually fairly standard for the time period, but for whatever reason, this particular event wedged itself firmly into pony folklore and wouldn't leave.)

Certain books in the dustier sections of the Canterlot archives, if perused for information on said alicorn, would mention several unconfirmed sightings of this alicorn throughout history. Every one of these sightings, however, allegedly ended similarly to the original event in the Age of Chaos, insofar that the alicorn in question apparently was incredibly annoying and eventually disappeared without a trace.

Ebony Redwood, the Ponyville mare living in the house with the bluish shingles, has heard the legends many times, and doesn't much care for them. Most ponies assume she's simply tired of all the unfair prejudice leveled against her just because her colors make her look kind of like a B-list superstition, and they'd be right.

Four thousand years is enough time to get tired of hearing things you like, after all.

Published 2012-10-14 16:50:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-03-16 00:38:14 UTC

The House with Blue Shingles

On the western side of Ponyville, there is a modest house with bluish-gray shingles. This wouldn't be so unusual were it not for the fact that nearly all of the other houses in town have thatched roofs. The non-conformity of this house becomes even more bizarre when one learns that this house also predates most of the town.

If somepony were to ask Ebony Redwood, the unicorn mare who lives in the house, her opinion on this, she would look around nervously and say something about the original owner just wanting a nice place to live without bothering anypony, and not even considering the possibility of an actual town springing up nearby, especially considering how near the house was to the Everfree Forest, and all that.

Conversations involving Ebony Redwood tend to involve a lot of run-on sentences. She has never quite figured out why.

On this particular day, she opened her refrigerator and noticed she was low on milk. At around midday, she put on her saddlebags and left the house to head to the market.

It didn't take long for Ebony to get the milk, and since it was the only thing she needed to buy she turned to leave. As she did so, her vision was flooded with pink.

"Hi! There's a new pony in town, so I'm throwing her a welcoming party at the library in three hours, and you're invited! Her name's Twilight Sparkle, and just so you know she's a purple unicorn with a pink streak in her mane. Are you gonna come?"

Ebony looked to the side. Her hoof scraped the ground. "I, uh...I really appreciate the offer, and everything, but I don't do very well with parties, at least not usually, I mean there were one or two parties I've been to that were nice, but most of them end badly if I show up, and I don't really want that to happen to a welcoming party. Sorry."

Pinkie Pie laughed. "Okie dokie, no problem! Not everypony can be a party pony, after all! Just try to say 'hi, and welcome' to her if you see her, okay?"

Ebony smiled softly. "I will." And with that, she walked home.

Once she got home, Ebony put the milk in her fridge and sat down to read a book. A few hours later, the sun had set enough to make reading impossible without some sort of light source, which she wasn't going to use today. The Summer Sun Celebration was tomorrow, and she hadn't seen one of those in a while. Although it was, arguably, a party, she didn't think her presence wouldn't make it end any worse than it was already going to be.

Call it a hunch.

"Stand back, you foals!"

Ebony watched carefully from the back of the room as Nightmare Moon struck down the guards that tried to attack her. She hated not being able to do anything other than watch, but she knew from experience that doing otherwise would end up making things much more difficult in the long run. Moments later, Nightmare turned into mist and flew through the front doors, pursued closely by the town's headstrong weather manager.

After half an hour or so, the remaining members of the Royal Guard determined that Nightmare Moon had left Ponyville entirely, and wasn't likely to come back; as such, everypony was told to return to their homes. Ebony was on her way to her own house when something crashed into her and pinned her to the ground. A voice from above her proclaimed, "Hah! I've got you now, Nightmare Moon!"

A mare's voice huffed in exasperation. "Rainbow Dash, that mare is not Nightmare Moon. Her mane is red, not violet, and it's made of hair, not mist. She isn't any bigger than us, whereas Nightmare Moon was the same size as Princess Celestia. She doesn't even have wings."

"...Well, maybe she's in disguise!"

"Don't be silly, Dashie!" This voice was unmistakably Pinkie Pie's. "That's Ebony Redwood, she's lived in Ponyville for years! I invited her to Twilight's welcome party yesterday! She decided not to come though, I guess she doesn't really like parties much, don't really know why but I think something bad happened to her at a party once which is really sad because mrgle flim nrg mull mmph mig!"

There was the unmistakable squeaking sound of a hoof being inserted into a mouth. "We get the picture, sugarcube. Dash, could y'all get off of her already?"

"Ehh heh heh...right, sorry, uh, Ebony?"

Ebony stood up and shook her head. "Apology accepted. Now, what's this about heading out? Are you trying to hunt down that Nightmare Moon pony?"

The mare who matched the description of Twilight Sparkle smiled awkwardly. "Well...maybe? We've got an idea on how to maybe do that, actually, but it's kind of a long shot, and I don't really want to say any more about it than I already have, because, well..."

"We're barely acquaintances, even by Pinkie Pie's standards. I understand." Ebony sighed. "Well, whatever it is you're doing, I wish you all the best of luck."

Ebony watched the six mares trot towards the Everfree for a few moments, then continued on her way home.

For your sakes and mine, I hope your plan works.

Their plan worked. Apparently, those six mares had managed to find the Elements of Harmony, and by complete coincidence managed to get them to work. Nightmare Moon was purified and restored to her old form as Princess Luna; Princess Celestia came back from wherever she'd disappeared to. The party had lasted all day and proceeded well into the night, but Ebony had barely attended it; she'd only stayed long enough to grab a few slices of cake before disappearing into her home.

It was now quite late, and the noise from outside had finally died down enough that Ebony could get some sleep at last. Despite the shenanigans with the princesses, the past few days had gone much the same as any others, and she enjoyed the stability her life gave her. Nopony expected much of her, and nopony was really upset by anything she did as a result. She pretty much had everything she needed, and didn't really have anything to complain about. With this in mind, Ebony closed her eyes and laid back, waiting for sleep to come.

Maybe I should have gone to the party.

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